What Could Happen?

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

And while we wait...

... I thought now would be as good a time as any for one of my periodic clarifications regarding my feelings toward Republicans.

I do not hate everyone who votes Republican. I do not even hate all Republican politicians. However, I do pretty much despise everything the Republican party stands for. There are exceptions. There are a few platform points I find merely wrong-headed or mystifying, rather than repulsive. There's even a detail or two that, sure, I could see maybe getting behind, maybe, sometime. But mostly, yeah, I think it's all pretty heinous.

And it's pretty useless to make the argument that we're all the same under the skin and politics is meaningless. This is not a matter of taste - you're not arguing chocolate vs. vanilla. Neither is it a matter of heredity - it's not like I'm criticizing you because I happen to dislike, say, blue eyes. Who you vote for SHOULD reflect something real about what you believe in. And I reserve the right to make certain judgments about who you are based on what you believe in. What better basis for judgment could there possibly be?

So that's my answer. To my Republican fans. I have nothing against you. I'm sure you're all really fantastic people, especially to have the strength to wade through my passionate (read: possibly hide-bound) opinions, opinions you presumably don't share. Hats off. But that doesn't mean I don't think you're voting for bad, unsound, evil things, and that I do think that says something about who you are.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Exercising the old franchise still something of a chore in LIC...

So they moved our polling station, out of the semi-abandoned building where I think they make plastic flowers sometimes, and into the court house. Which is is definitely a move toward 21st century western democracy, sure. But it would have been nice if someone had told us. The sweet old ladies at the polling station, when eventually we did get there, proudly trumpeted a confused 80-year-old man into his booth by announcing that he was "the only Republican we've had in here!" Another woman seemed to have not managed to vote - her light was still on when she left the booth - but a kindly official pulled the switch for her. Without letting her know or anything. Hey, she was halfway out of the building, and kind of in her own little world, so.... Oh, and I'm not on the voting list. Used a paper ballot. So that's one Obama vote flushed.